Carol Tepper (Member 58,442) spotted these dramatic rays over Fort Myers, Florida, US as the sunlight shone down on a towering Cumulus congestus cloud. Though it looks as if the beams of light and shade, known as crepuscular rays, were fanning upwards, they were actually fanning down.

Shadows from the turreted tops of the Cumulus were cast down through thin layers of hazy cloud beneath. The translucent cloud layers were so subtle as to be noticeable only by how they scattered the light where they were lit compared to the parts where they were in shadow. The appearance of these shadows reveals the structure of the layer of cloud: a slightly denser layer at the top, then a slightly less dense one, with a more diffuse hazy atmosphere beneath them. Such a layered interplay of light and shade reveals the three-dimensional structure of the air.